Intro for November 7, 2018

As you know, a few weeks ago, for the first time, Taylor Swift made it clear who she was voting for in the US midterm elections. Since then, she’s been consistently encouraging her fans to register to vote, to vote early, and to stay engaged. Taylor endorsed Jim Cooper for House of Representatives and Phil Bredesen in Tennessee for United States Senate over Marsha Blackburn. Marsha Blackburn won handily last night so now, Taylor’s getting trolled by some Republican supporters and television personalities. It’s not like she’s new to the experience though. We’ve seen Taylor trolled. We’ve trolled Taylor ourselves. Taylor’s usual comeback after being trolled is to put it into the music. I wonder, if that’s what she chooses to do, what that will sound like.

Still, there may be some other conclusions to take away from Taylor’s efforts later, when the data is unpacked. Here’s what I’m curious about: Tennessee, historically, has one of the lowest voter turnouts but this year, preliminary data is apparently showing a seven-fold increase in voters aged 18-29 between 2014 and 2018. This includes early and absentee voters. That’s a 664% increase. Six hundred and sixty-four percent. The other piece of that though is that even with that rise, voters 18-29 represent just 7% of the total. So is this just a beginning? How much more is out there? If there is more out there, what kind of a difference could they make? What difference could it make in another two years? And IF – IFFFFF – Taylor had something to do with that surge, will she continue to build on the momentum? Or does it not matter either way? Do celebrities accomplish nothing in this lane? Curious to know your thoughts.

Here’s Taylor performing in Brisbane last night, her final show in Australia. She has three shows remaining on the reputation tour and then she moves on. To Cats! LOL.